Chinese Prosecutors Investigate Beijing Police Over Death of Detained Man

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Police officers questioning a man in Tiananmen Square in Beijing on March 2, 2015. It is rare for prosecutors in China to investigate the police for excessive violence.CreditCreditGreg Baker/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

BEIJING — Prosecutors in Beijing announced on Wednesday that they were investigating five police officers in the mysterious death of a detained man last month.

The death of the man, Lei Yang, a 29-year-old environmentalist and father of a newborn daughter, was widely discussed online in China, with many commenters accusing the police of brutality and asking whether ordinary people were safe from abuse by officers.

Beijing procuratorate to place Lei Yang’s case on file and investigate the five policemen related to his death. pic.twitter.com/eHO6L21qD5

It is rare for prosecutors in China to investigate the police for excessive violence, even though the torture of prisoners is common.

The investigation centers on five officers in the Changping District, a northern suburb of Beijing. Mr. Lei was detained outside a Beijing foot massage parlor on the night of May 7, according to official police accounts at the time. The term “massage parlor” in China often refers to a brothel.

One of the most detailed official accounts appeared on May 11 in People’s Daily, the Communist Party newspaper. The officer in charge of the Dongxiaokou station in Changping, Xing Yongrui, said in an interview with the paper that the police had detained Mr. Lei in an anti-prostitution raid. Mr. Xing said Mr. Lei had bitten police officers and tried to escape twice. It took five officers 20 minutes to subdue Mr. Lei, Mr. Xing was quoted as saying.

The police said Mr. Lei had a heart attack in custody and was declared dead at a hospital, according to Chinese news reports. A report by Xinhua, the state news agency, quoted family members as saying that they had seen bruises on Mr. Lei’s head and arms.

On Wednesday, the Beijing Procuratorate said on its official microblog that the preliminary investigation into the episode had been completed, and that Mr. Lei “was suspected of visiting a brothel and died after the police took enforcement measures.”

After those preliminary findings, the statement said, another procuratorate’s office opened an investigation into five police officers at the Dongxiaokou station, including one with the surname of Xing.

An online statement released last month that was attributed to Mr. Lei’s wife, Wu Wencui, 28, said she was suing the police for intentionally causing injury leading to death, abuse of power and assisting in fabricating evidence. The statement said, “On May 13, during the post-mortem examination, five family members saw with their own eyes the injuries all over his body.”

In late May, another accusation of police brutality led to more widespread discussion online. Two men in Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu Province, said they had been beaten by the police after one of them filmed the police kicking the other man. The police had intervened in a dispute over the use of a toilet. People online began referring to the incident as “Lanzhou buttocks.”